What this covers
The full story of ‘Project Baby Face’.
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Disclaimer: This video is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. Those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician.
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🧪 WHO AM I? Hi Friends - I am the world’s most measured human. At 46, my cardiovascular fitness ranks in the top 1.5% of 18 year olds; I celebrate my birthday every 19 months because we’ve dramatically slowed my speed of aging, and in 2023I achieved the world’s best recorded sleep score, 8 months of 100% perfect sleep.
This is remarkable because previously, my health was in a pretty bad place.
In 2020, I started Project Blueprint to help you achieve similar results. I share everything I do and learn for free, so you can access the best health science available.
Project Blueprint and Don’t Die celebrate that we, humanity, are evolving into something new. Join me on this journey.
Chapters 0:00 - Intro 0:18 - What happened to my face? 1:43 - Project Baby Face 2:38 - 1. Collagen stimulation 3:28 - 2. Donor fat transfer 4:27 - 3. Increased calories 5:45 - 4. Less lutein 6:18 - 5. Under-eye plasma injections 7:14 - Is this really important? 8:58 - What next? 9:29 - How my body changed over 46 years
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Bryan Johnson demonstrates that comprehensive biometric optimization combined with targeted facial rejuvenation technologies can measurably reverse aging markers, though public perception of aesthetic appearance often conflicts with underlying health improvements.
- Caloric restriction alone achieved excellent biomarkers but created appearance disconnect; strategic caloric increase and rejuvenation interventions reconciled biomarkers with public perception
- Five distinct interventions (Sculptra, fat transfer, caloric adjustment, lutein reduction, PRF) work synergistically to restore facial volume and health markers
- Success requires meeting both objective biological criteria and subjective aesthetic thresholds for public credibility and movement adoption
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The experimental approach to caloric restriction optimization (starting with 22% deficit, then testing whether 10% deficit maintains biomarkers) demonstrates a general principle for evaluating any therapeutic intervention: finding the minimum effective dose.
“if caloric restriction is a promising idea and it's still emergent, then we're trying this out and we're measuring a bunch of biomarkers. If it doesn't need to be 20%, then we can move to 10. If it doesn't need to be 10, we can move to zero.”
Caloric restriction to 1,950 calories per day (22% reduction from 2,500 maintenance calories) produced excellent biomarkers within two years, reducing fat including facial fat, despite causing substantial weight loss and gaunt appearance.
“If a person like me consumes 2,500 calories a day to maintain the same weight, you'd reduce that. And so my caloric intake was 1,950 calories, substantially less. This caused me to lose a lot of fat including in my face.”
As the future arrives, many preconceived notions about reality will be challenged by technological and scientific developments that seem impossible today; maintaining intellectual openness to paradigm shifts is necessary for adapting to future possibilities.
“As we head into the future, many of our preconceived notions may be challenged by things that come to pass. And when they do, I think it's going to be best for all of us to say, you know what, I have an idea about reality, but I'm wide open to thinking differently.”
Anti-aging research is still in its early stages, and experimental protocols should be considered as data points informing long-term understanding of what interventions are necessary, rather than as established optimal protocols.
“It's still very early in the days of anti-aging. And so these kinds of experiments I think are at least interesting as a data point on how we think about the therapies and what impact they can have on our lifespans and health spans.”
Regularly examining and checking one's assumptions and beliefs is a necessary practice for discovering opportunities or benefits that are currently hidden by false preconceptions.
“So, it's a reminder to me to always check assumptions, check my beliefs, because something may be hiding that may really be in my best interest if I could just see it.”
Facial fat is a critical perceptual cue for assessing youthfulness; people judge age primarily from facial appearance rather than from biomarkers, creating a disconnect where someone with excellent health markers can appear old or unhealthy due to facial volume loss.
“It turns out that facial fat is really important to how someone gauges someone else's youthfulness. The problem was, no matter how good my biomarkers were, they would look at my face and say, 'That guy's old.'”
Humans lose approximately 1% of collagen per year starting in their 20s, resulting in a cumulative loss of 75% by age 80, which manifests as facial volume loss and contributes to aged appearance.
“In fact, in your 20s, you start losing 1% of your collagen every year. So, by the time you're 80 years old, you've lost 75% of what you had in your early 20s.”
Sculptra is a bio-stimulator that, when injected into facial regions (temples, around mouth), triggers the body's natural collagen production rather than simply expanding volume like traditional fillers, making it a more legitimate rejuvenation technology.
“The first thing I did is sculptra which is a bio stimulator. It's injected into certain regions of the face. For example, the temples right around the mouth through here. It's designed to allow your body to naturally produce collagen. So instead of putting filler in the face, which just expands in volume, you're getting actual collagen production.”
Johnson reduced lutein (a carotenoid supplement) from 20 mg to 15 mg daily because excessive carotenoid intake was causing visible yellowing of his skin, which contributed to public perception that he was unhealthy (people suspected liver failure).
“Next is I lessened my intake of lutein which is a carotenoid from 20 millig to 15. And so I did that because it was making my skin yellow. And I think this is why so many people were confused. They saw me I looked gaunt. I was yellow and they're trying to make sense. Is this really what a healthy person looks like? And so a lot of people were thinking I had liver failure that I didn't know about, but it was simply because I had too much carotenoids in my diet”
Autologous fat transfer (using one's own fat) is ideal but was not viable because Johnson lacked sufficient body fat reserves and extraction would cause visible indentations, so he used donor fat instead, resulting in a severe allergic reaction that necessitated discontinuation.
“Next is I tried Reuva, which is fat transfer. Now, ideally, you want to use your own fat. The problem was I didn't have enough fat on my body to do a transfer, and the doctor was concerned that if we tried to extract any fat I had, I would leave an indentation on my body. And so, I used a donor's fat. When I did this, I had an extreme allergic reaction.”
Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) under-eye treatment involves blood draw, separation of plasma from red blood cells, and reinjection of plasma to restore lost under-eye volume; it is superior to synthetic fillers which can migrate and cause complications.
“Finally, I did underey PRF and that is when you do a blood draw and you separate the red blood cells from the plasma and then you put the plasma back in the body. And this is what I did for my sprained ankle. It's what you can do for hair growth, which I don't do anymore. you can also do for under eye. And so over time, you lose volume under your eye. And there's only really two ways to revolmize. One is with filler. The other is this under eye PRF. The problem with filler is it can migrate and become a nightmare. So I would strongly recommend you do not do filler under eye. It can be very complicated.”
Under-eye PRF is effective at restoring volume and rejuvenating under-eye appearance but only lasts 3-6 months, requiring repeated treatment approximately three times per year on an ongoing basis.
“Under eye PRF is helpful because it helps revolmize the loss volume. Also, it only lasts for like 3 to 6 months. So, it needs to be something you repeat on a continued basis, but does in fact work and revolmize what you see disappear over time with age. And I do under eye PRF three times per year.”
The objective of the Blueprint project is to achieve biological similarity to an 18-year-old self in every measurable way, which currently seems inconceivable but may become possible with sufficient time and technological advancement.
“the objective was, can I be biologically similar to my 18-year-old in every way, shape, or form? Now, that sounds inconceivable today, but with enough time, is it? That is a question I think worth asking.”
The Blueprint project is evaluated by the public primarily on superficial aesthetic components (facial fat, appearance) rather than on comprehensive biomarkers, creating a disconnect between scientific success and public perception that Johnson finds saddening.
“it's been a complicated one because I've been trying to of course demonstrate something that's never been done before and so it's hard of course for people to understand context. I do think we are at this meaningful moment in time where we are evolving as a species into something else and I'm trying to indicate like this is a promising path for us to pursue and so sometimes I do feel uh saddened that the project is by itself evaluated solely on face fat or some other aesthetic component and not upon these you know comprehensive biomarkers we have.”
Success of the anti-aging movement requires meeting specific aesthetic criteria including facial volume, beyond just achieving biomarker optimization, because public credibility and adoption depend on appearance-based signaling.
“But you know what? This movement needs to succeed. And to do that, there are some criteria, including volume in a face that need to be met. I understand. I mean, the objective was, can I be biologically similar to my 18-year-old in every way, shape, or form?”
The combination of five specific interventions (Sculptra bio-stimulation, dietary caloric optimization, carotenoid reduction, and PRF treatment) produces synergistic facial rejuvenation effects that none could achieve alone.
“There are five things I did to restore volume in my face. The first thing I did is sculptra... Next is I tried Reuva, which is fat transfer... Next is we decided to increase my daily caloric intake... Next is I lessened my intake of lutein... Finally, I did underey PRF”
Aging and health optimization will be one of the domains in which current beliefs are challenged by future developments, requiring intellectual flexibility about what is currently considered impossible or undesirable.
“And I think aging and health and wellness is going to be one of those things.”
The Blueprint longevity project has unexpectedly become a global phenomenon with intense public scrutiny, requiring Johnson to be compared to people who have maintained aesthetic optimization their entire lives, creating social pressure that was not anticipated.
“Right now, the past few years has been wild. When I started Blueprint, I did not expect it to be a global phenomena. I did not expect to be scrutinized by everyone in the world. I did not expect to be compared to the most aesthetically pleasing, beautiful people in the world. People who have been on top of their aesthetic game their entire life.”
Johnson's Sculptra protocol used two vials every six months, exceeding the manufacturer's recommendation of one vial per year, because he was compensating for a severe caloric-restriction-induced collagen deficit rather than using maintenance dosing.
“My protocol has been doing two vials every six months. I think the company recommends one per year. So I've exceeded what they're recommending. Also, I was compensating from a place of pretty serious deficit. Not starting as a maintenance mode of one vial per year at say age 28. And going through time, I didn't do any until I was age 46. And I lost a lot of weight.”
Extreme caloric restriction to 1,950 calories per day was not necessary to achieve the target biomarkers; the same biomarker profile could be maintained at higher caloric intake, indicating the protocol was overoptimized in the dimension of caloric restriction.
“1950, it turns out it was not necessary as far as we can tell to achieve the same level of biomarkers.”
Johnson grew up in a small community where aesthetics were not emphasized and aging was expected (getting fat and bald), so he did not apply face cream until his early 40s and never developed an aesthetic optimization practice until starting the Blueprint project.
“Growing up in a small community, no one really cared about aesthetics. You're just expected as you age to get fat, go bald. So, I didn't apply face cream, for example, ever in my entire life until I was in my early 40s. I never played the aesthetics game.”
Johnson increased daily caloric intake from 1,950 to 2,250 calories (approximately 150-calorie increase) while maintaining excellent biomarkers and gained 15 lbs (6.8 kg), improving facial volume and subjective quality of life significantly.
“Next is we decided to increase my daily caloric intake going from 1,950 to 2,250. And we were probing, can we increase my calories while also maintaining the same biomarkers and also putting on more fat. And it worked. I gained 15 lbs, just under 7 kg, and that helped revolmize my face.”